Enter a name, company, place or keywords to search across this item. Then click "Search" (or hit Enter).
Volume 055-3 - July 2001 (8 pages)
Go to the Archive Home
Go to Thumbnail View of this Item
Go to Single Page View of this Item
Download the Page Image
Copy the Page Text to the Clipboard
Don't highlight the search terms on the Image
Show the Page Image
Show the Image Page Text
Reset View and Center Image
Zoom Out
Zoom In
Rotate Left
Rotate Right
Toggle Full Page View
Flip Image Horizontally
More Information About this Image
Get a Citation for Page or Image - Copy to the Clipboard
Go to the Previous Page (or Left Arrow key)
Go to the Next Page (or Right Arrow key)
Page: of 8
made the total losses amount to about the sum of
$100,000. Several suits for damages were instituted,
but as Laird & Co. were held not liable and Moore &
Foss were irresponsible parties, nothing was ever recovered.
The Laird Dam disaster was taken in stride by the city of
Nevada. After all, she was used to disasters, having rebuilt
the city after four fires in the previous six years—and
would do so again two more times in the next seven years!
Laird abandoned the reservoir concept and instead
moved upstream and built a classic “wood-crib” style diversion. The diversion dam site was selected on Deer Creek at
elevation 3540 feet, at the top of a 60-foot waterfall—or
cascade. This plan allowed water to be delivered to the
Scotts Flat side of the ridge, along the six miles to the
saddle, and then through the saddle to Quaker Hill, and
continue two miles to Hunt’s Hill.
The canal was finished in 1860. The upper sections in the
sleep canyon were mostly flume, with ditch used on the
gentler slopes. The flume was three feet deep by four feet
wide, and the ditch was four feet deep and five/four feet
wide at the top/bottom, respectively. It could carry 1400
miner’s inches initially, but was later increased to 2000 inches. (A miner’s inch is the equivalent of about eleven gallons per minute.)
Laird and Chambers sold the canal soon after it was
completed, and by 1862 it was added to the vast holdings of
eo the South Yuba Canal Company. The South Yuba company,
NCHS Bulletin July 2001
Remains of the “crib-style’’ Cascade diversion dam.
(Photo by author.)
under various names and ownership, continued operation of
the Cascade until January 5, 1905, when the entire South
Yuba Water Company was sold to the emerging electric
utility giant, California Gas and Electric Company.
One claim to fame the Cascade Canal shares with the
South Yuba Company is being part of the first long-distance
telephone system. The Nevada Transcript reported on July
19, 1878, that a telephone system had been placed in operation to “Big Tunnel” of the South Yuba Canal Company and
to three other locations along the way. The article gave an
account of conversations on July 17 with the Big Tunnel
MPT
A contemporary painting of the Laird and Chambers diggings at
35 ie rs
eet <r lsNevada City in the 1850s. (California Historical Society.)